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Florida is at it again! In the last election, Florida gave the election to George Bush. If all districts had been counted correctly Al Gore would have won Florida & the Presidency. You know what happened, so I won't dwell on it.

This time it is even more sinister. It seems as if Florida is one of a handful of states that bar convicted felons from voting. I have no problem with this, in fact I'm for it. What I do have a problem with, is when a state uses any rule to stack the odds in favor of one party. What is now happening in Florida is that blacks who are mostly democratic are being singled out for a list of felons who are ineligible to vote. The list which Governor Bush & Secretary of State Hood tried desperately to keep secret, (It was disclosed only as a result of lawsuits filed under Florida's sunshine law.) contained thousands of people mostly black that should not have been on that list. Hood was forced to admit that the felons list was a mess. She said that the mistakes were unintentional.

Some things aren't unintentional. The use of state troopers to intimidate black voters is definitely intentional. In response to reports of voter fraud in last march's mayoral election in Orlando the state started sending state troopers into the homes of elderly black voters. This practice has continued even though no charges have been filed & the allegations appear to be unfounded. Florida Department of Law Enforcement head Guy Tunnell, who was hand picked by governor Jeb Bush, has been unfazed by mounting criticism. If the fact that one of their victims is a 73 year old black man, Ezzie Thomas, who did very well in turning out the black vote in Orange County doesn't tell you something, then in my opinion, your either blind or just very gullible. Intimidation to change election results is something I thought I'd never see in America. I thought it only happened in third world dictatorships. How wrong we can be?

Thanks to Bob Herbert of the New York Times for the above information.

P.S. If the list held up till after the elections the lost votes wouldn't matter & if it swung the vote to George Bush then Florida would have done it again. Remember there were numerous complaints filed during the last presidential election.

Could it be that Florida is a third world state?

It's not only happening in Florida. More then 80 % of the population of Detroit is black. This is well understood by John Pappageorge, who is white and a Republican state legislator in Michigan. "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote." Said Pappageorge, "we're going to have a tough time in this election."

In Texas, students at the predominantly black Prairie View A&M University were threatened with arrest by the local district attorney, a Republican, who suggested they were not eligible to vote in the county in which their school was located. This is nonsense. Students can vote in their college towns if they designate the campus as their home address. It is only a scare tactic to keep people from voting.

Again thanks to Bob Herbert for the information.

The Election Protection Coalition has set up a hot line 1-866 OUR-VOTE for anyone who feels they are being disenfranchised or anyone who knows or suspects that disenfranchising is taking place.

9/17/04: The Florida Supreme Court voted 6 to 1 to allow Ralph Nader to be on the ballot in the upcoming presidential election. This even though in Florida he will be on the Reform Party ticket where in most states he's running as an independent. The Reform Party was the party of Pat Buchanan (Conservative) Ralph Nader is a ultra liberal so what is the parties goal? They know that Nader will hurt John Kerry & they know he doesn't have a Chinamen's chance. He may help local candidates & he will help George Bush and the Reform Party would rather have a Republican win.

Nader benefits because he doesn't have to gather petition signatures. Is this egotistical man going to once again put a man in the White House that he himself says is ruining the country.? He took enough votes in Florida during the last election to cost Al Gore presidency.

10/5/04:  CNN report on Florida's election preparation.

I told you to watch the Republicans, they'll do anything to win.

Note: see The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report.